Gender Identity Norms And The Gender Gaps In The Labor Market

Although the relative gains in women's education and labor market opportunities have increased a lot due to the rapid economic development in the context of reform and opening up and economic globalization,the gender gaps in the labor market performance still remain.There are three stylized facts of the gender gaps in the labor market in China.Firstly,the labor force participation rate of women is much lower than that of men in China.Moreover,the labor force participation rate of women has declined much rapider than that of men.Secondly,the gender wage gap in China is higher than the global average and has been always existed.Thirdly,the proportion of women among entrepreneurs is much lower than the proportion of men.The problems arising from the gender gaps in the labor market performance not only are related to gender equality,but also have significant impact on China's economic growth and income distribution.The gender gaps in the labor market performance have been a hot issue in economics research for a long time.Although there are plenty of research on this issue,however,few studies examining this issue from the perspective of non-traditional economic variables such as gender identity norms,which is a frontier field.Furthermore,there is little literature examining the impacts of gender identity norms on the gender wage gap and the gender gap in the entrepreneurship.In the context of three stylized facts of the gender gaps in the labor market in China,this dissertation investigates the impacts of gender identity norms on the gender gaps in the labor market.Firstly,the dissertation studies the impacts of gender identity norms on the women's labor supply in China.Using the data of China Population Census of 2005 and China Family Panel Survey(2010-2016),the study finds that when a randomly chosen woman's income is more likely to exceed a randomly chosen man's in a corresponding marriage market,then the marriage rate declines.This result shows that China has gender identity norms and they inhibit the marriage matching pattern that the women's income exceeds their husband.On the household level,when a wife's potential income is more likely to exceed her husband's,then the wife is less likely to be in the labor force.For those wives who are working,their actual income are more likely lower than their potential income.Furthermore,the wife will have much lower relative income and higher possibility of being a household worker,while the actual income of the husband is more likely to exceed his potential income.The household with extreme low income is less affected by the gender identity norms as they cannot afford the cost of a housewife who withdraws from the labor market.The gender identity norms have the most substantial effects on those who are less educated and from rural areas.Besides,if a wife earns more than her husband,she is less likely to be in the labor force the following year.Secondly,this dissertation is among the first to study the impact of gender identity norms on the gender wage gap by using the methodology of identity economics.The theoretical analysis shows that the gender identity norms will increase the wage of men and decrease the wage of women,and thus lead to a gender wage gap.Then the study tests the theoretical prediction empirically by using the 2010-2016 China Family Panel Survey(CFPS)data.The study finds that gender identity norms significantly decreases the wage of women,and has a positive impact on the wage of men,though insignificantly.Furthermore,the study shows that the gender identity norms have a significant positive impact on the gender wage gap,which verifies the theoretical hypothesis.The heterogeneity analysis results show that the negative impacts of gender identity norms on the females' wage increases with the increase of the wage distribution.Lastly,the impacts of gender identity norms on the gender wage gap are mainly through the channels of occupation and industry.The detailed decomposition of the gender wage gap shows that the gender identity norms accounted for 30.3%of the wage structure effect.However,the proportion decreased year by year.It means that the impact of gender identity norms on the gender wage gap has been declined year by year.Finally,this dissertation is among the first to investigate the impact of gender identity norms on the gender gap in the entrepreneurship by using the methodology of identity economics.The theoretical analysis shows that the gender identity norms will promote men's choice of entrepreneurship,inhibit women's choice of entrepreneurship,and thus lead to the gender gap in the entrepreneurship.Besides,three potential mechanisms—management talent,social capital and risk preference are discussed.Then the study tests the theoretical prediction empirically by using the 2010-2016 China Family Panel Survey(CFPS)data and the 2010-2015 China General Social Survey(CGSS)data.The study finds that gender identity norms significantly increases the likelihood of men choosing to start a business,but insignificantly for women.Furthermore,the study shows that the gender identity norms have a significant positive impact on the gender gap in the entrepreneurship,which verifies the theoretical hypothesis.Lastly,the mechanism analysis reveals that whether to be a manager or not and social capital are two primary mechanisms,which explains about 79.7%and 10.6%respectively.This study not only is an extension of the theory of identity economics,but also can provide micro foundations and supplements for the models of discrimination and nepotism.In addition,the study has a lot of policy implications.In general,improving the gender identity norms helps to narrow the gender gaps in the labor market performance.There are three main policy suggestions.First,China should consider improving the female labor supply by offering more educational opportunities for women,accelerating the urbanization as well as using the government propaganda to reduce the effects of gender identity norms.Second,the government can improve the gender identity norms by government propaganda and media publicity to liberate women from the traditional gender identity norms.In that way the gender wage gap will decreased and a lot of growth dividends will be released.Third,the government is suggested to consider the perspective of gender in the policy making of mass entrepreneruship and innovation and promote high-quality and upgraded mass entrepreneruship and innovation through unleashing the potential of females'entrepreneurship.